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Finally, A Show About Garment Sewing!
Sandra Betzina is the Best!

Sunday, February 25, 2007

I have been sew busy trying to get ready to do a sewing program for our chapter of the American Sewing Guild. I am preparing lots of sewing tips and techniques for them. Making the samples is a lot of work.

At the same time, our house is for sale and we have had quite a few people come through during open house. It is amazing how many are into sewing, crafts and hobbies. They fall in love with my sewing room. It is so great to have a place where you can sew and not have to put everything away every day. However, lately, I have to keep things more neat because of these unexpected visitors. So, that is a pain!

I get a lot of compliments on my curtains, draperies, pillows and home dec items in the house. But I think the most comments are about something that I did in the master bathroom. So, I thought I would share it with you. Maybe you can use it, too.

The unusual decorating idea that everyone thinks is so very clever is in my master bathroom window. . .actually the lower half of the window.

I'll never understand why builder's put large windows directly over the bathtub, but that's what so many do. I guess they don't have any place else to put it, but it seems dumb to me. You can't get out of the shower, bathtub or do anything else in the bathroom without closing the blinds first or you will expose yourself to your neighbors and the world.

I hated the thought of having the shades pulled closed all the time and I didn't want shutters, so I decided to do something a bit different.

While strolling through the mall one day, I spotted a painting of some swans on sale that had the colors of my bathroom in it. It was a large painting and I thought it might fit in the lower portion of my window, so I bought it. My husband thought I was crazy!

When I got it home, it wasn't quite large enough, but almost. My husband was upset!

So, I covered some really fat cording with fabric from some of my bedroom pillows and stapled that around the outside of the picture frame. Perfect! Now, it covered the window and no one could see in. My husband even liked it! Thank goodness!

Then, I thought how ugly the back of the painting would look from the outside. So, you guessed it, more fabric to the rescue! Isn't it really cool what we can do with fabric?

I completely covered the backside of the painting with a striped fabric that coordinated with my other window coverings in my master bedroom on the same side of the house. Great! It looks like a fabric panel from the neighbor's house.

I set the painting on the window sill and secured it with picture frame wire to the latch on the window so it wouldn't fall down just in case one of my grandchildren bumped it when they used the bath tub.

The upper half of the window lets in lots of sunshine and light, so it works well. I added a valance at the very top of the window to dress it up. And, I didn't really need to have any shades at all.

Even with all the steam and moisture that is in the bathroom, after 9 years, that painting still looks great and everyone loves it.

Maybe you can add a picture in a window somewhere in your house. People will be impressed with how clever you are!